Showing posts with label Teatime Treats. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Teatime Treats. Show all posts
Cherry and Vanilla Scones. These are not cherry scones. These are not vanilla scones. These are Cherry and Vanilla Scones and they are completely different from my other Cherry Vanilla Scone recipe.
That one uses dried sour cherries and is lovely in its own tasty right, sporting a sweet vanilla glaze.
This easy recipe uses candied cherries, or glace cherries as they are also known. Feel free to use maraschino cherries if you cannot find the glace cherries. Just make sure you rinse them well and then dry them before using them in the recipe.
Otherwise they will tint your scone dough pink.
The recipe for these scones was adapted from one I found in a little National Trust book entitled The National Trust Book of Scones.
I love National Trust recipes and their books. They are filled with lots of little antidotes and many are actually recipes which are used in the tea rooms at their various properties which are dotted all over the country.
We always belonged to the National Trust when I was in the UK. They are a trust for the preservation of historic properties, gardens and farms all over England, Wales and Northern Ireland.
I have always loved visiting their historic properties. Not only are they areas of great beauty, but they are always fascinating and quite informative, historically speaking. I do believe that the Prince of Wales is a Patron.
Beatrix Potter bought up huge scathes of land and properties in the Lake District in an effort to prevent developers from taking over the area and destroying its natural beauty, which was then turned over to the Trust upon her passing.
The Trust is a worthy association which has done a lot to preserve the history and beauty of the UK. They are mainly supported by people visiting these properties and by people who donate to and support the organization. I worry about how it may have fared during Covid.
I hope that it will come out alright in the end.
I wish they had properties such as those here in Canada. I am a real history buff and I love visiting places like this. This is one thing I have in common with Susan Branch.
Anyways, if you ever have the chance to visit the UK, so go to as many National Trust Properties as you can. You won't regret it. You can buy a membership for the time that you are there and it will allow you to into as many places as you wish to for that given year. Well worth the price.
Most of their properties have shops and tearooms/restaurants/cafe's attached where you can go and sit down and have a lunch or a drink and a piece of cake or whatnot. Their treats on offer usually reflect the property where the teashop is located.
All of their food is great. We never visited one without having a drink and a piece of cake or a scone.
As I said, this scone recipe comes from one of their books and I would classify it as an every day type of scone. There are no eggs and cream in it.
Just simple ingredients. Self raising flour, butter, sugar, milk and vanilla. Oh, and those candied glace cherries.
True confession here. I did run out of red cherries today and had to resort to using a few green ones. I could have left them out altogether, but I did want to be able to taste the results from having used the full amount.
It is a generous amount of glace cherries to be honest, which is just lovely. That means they are generously studded throughout with bits of sweet cherry.
I know that it might be difficult for some of you to get glace cherries. You can use maraschino cherries in a pinch, but do beware that they are a bit flimsier than glace cherries.
You will need to rinse them well, and dry them really well, and then be gentle in your handling of them. I always rinse and dry my glace cherries as well.
These are not quite as rich as scones made with cream and butter, but they are still really lovely. Light and crumbly and sturdy enough to spread with cold butter without tearing or breaking apart.
You can enjoy them warm of course, but the wonderful thing about scones is they are equally as delicious to enjoy cold as they are warm.
The same basic principles apply when making scones as when making biscuits. You will always need to use a gentle hand in order to keep them from being tough.
You also need to get as many cuts as you can from the first patting out as subsequent cuts will not be as perfect looking once baked as the first cuts will.
Also for straight sided scones, take care not to twist your cutter when cutting them out. Twisting the cutter seals the edges which prevents your scones from rising properly.
You will get a much higher rise if you stamp them out with a straight up and down motion. Also the re-pats and cuts will not be as tender, because once again . . . they are a fussy bread which benefits from the least amount of attention as possible.
I know my scones and have shared quite a few different recipes on here over the years for a variety of both savory and sweet scones.
Some of my favorites are: Honey and Date Scones (flavored with honey and studded with plenty of bits of dates), Cheese, Spring Onion and Bacon (studded with cheese, chopped spring onions and crispy bits of bacon. Great with soups or salads), Nan's Sugar Scones (a lemon soaked sugar cube is inserted in the center prior to baking, resulting in an almost lemon curd like filling), Irish Coffee Cake Scones (studded with dried currants and topped with a crunchy streusel topping), Three Ingredient Cheese Scones (yes, only three ingredients. Nice and cheesy.)
My favorite all time Classic Fruited Scones (the kind you will find on offer at most establishments and tearooms in the UK), these are scone perfection. And this is only the tip of the iceberg. If you click here you will get a list of all my scone recipes.
So you can see, I really love scones, and I was very pleased with the way these turned out. Warm or cold, with butter or without.
With or without jam or honey, even just on their own, these are quite simply really nice scones. I was very pleased with the outcome and I think you will be too! Enjoy!
Cherry & Vanilla Scones
Yield: Makes 10 (3-inch) scones
Prep time: 15 MinCook time: 18 MinTotal time: 33 Min
Simple to make, studded with cherries and flavored with vanilla.
Ingredients
- 3 1/2 cups + 2 TBS (500g) self-raising flour
- 1/3 cup (40g) finely granulated sugar
- 1/4 cup (60g) cold butter, cubed
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 120ml (1/2 cup) whole milk (may need more)
- 1 3/4 cup (200g) glace cherries, quartered
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 375*F/190*C/ gas mark 5. Line a large baking tray with some baking paper. Set aside.
- Sift the flour and sugar into a mixing bowl. Drop in the bits of butter. Rub the butter in, using your fingertips, until the mixture resembles fine dry bread crumbs.
- Mix the milk with the vanilla. Make a well in the center of the flour mixture and add the milk gradually, mixing with a round bladed knife until you have a soft dough. You may need more or less milk. Stir in the cherries, distributing them as evenly as you can.
- Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and pat out to approximately 1 1/2 inches in thickness. Cut into 3 inch rounds using a floured cutter and taking care not to twist the cutter.
- Transfer the rounds to the prepared baking sheet, leaving about 2 inches in between each. Re-pat the scraps and repeat cutting until you have cut all your scones. (Bear in mind the most tender scones will be the ones from the first cutting, so do try to get as many from that as you can.)
- Brush the top of each scone with a bit of milk and bake in the preheated oven for 15 to 18 minutes, until well risen and golden brown.
- Scoop off onto a wire rack to cool. Best served warm with some butter and jam.
Notes:
You can easily make your own self-rising flour. Just add 1 1/2 tsp baking powder and 1/2 tsp of salt to each cup (140g) of flour needed. Works a charm. This is what I used here today.
Thanks so much for visiting! Do come again!
We are having a bit of a heatwave here in Nova Scotia at the moment. Yesterday the temperature got up to the mid 30's and today is expected to be more of the same. Its not the kind of weather you really want to be heating up your oven in!
That's when things such as a chewy rice krispie treats recipe come in really handy. Whether you are a large family or a singleton. I know of nobody who doesn't love these quick and easy cereal bars!
If you are a singleton or an empty nester like myself however, a full batch is a bit more than you can feasibly handle eating! I am on a quest to small-batch as many of my favorite recipes as I can and this is my latest attempt.
I have to say it worked really well! I was very pleased with the results. I love Rice Krispie cereal and this is the best rice krispie treats recipe. I have been making these for years and years.
As with most people, I got the original recipe from the back of a box of Rice Krispies cereal. It was a real favorite with my ex-husband and our children when they were growing up. I am sure I made them at least once a week!
The children loved cleaning out the saucepan after I made them. Somewhere I have a photograph of them doing just that. It was a sticky business, but one which they loved to help with!
They are perfect for afterschool snacks, or for in lunch boxes and I confess, I often made these for family night treats for the kids. I think my ex was the biggest kid of all!
He could polish off half a pan of them without even blinking! He was a real sugar fiend!
These delicious no bake cereal bars, a small batch, are made in a loaf tin. I use a 9 X 5-inch loaf tin which is the ideal size for making bars and cakes for the smaller sized family.
Using that tin, things always cut perfectly into 8 nicely sized bars. This is just right for the smaller sized family and just right for me.
These are the ideal chewy, oowy, gooey, dessert. I love eating them with ice cream if I have any in the house. In fact you can make really good ice cream sandwiches with them!
Just use an 7 inch square pan instead of the loaf tin, and press half of the mixture firmly into the pan. Top with about 2 cups of softened vanilla ice cream and place in the freezer for it to harden. Take out and top with the remainder of the crisp rice mixture, pressing it as firmly as you can over the ice cream.
It helps to use a piece of parchment to do this. Return them to the freezer to let them harden up nicely. Cut into rectangles or squares and wrap individually airtight.
They are ready to enjoy whenever you are wanting an ice cold treat. Especially during the summer months!
I used to make my children a rice krispie ice cream banana split sundae cake when they were growing up. It is pretty much along the same principle, except there is only one layer of rice krispie square mixture.
This is topped with softened ice cream, and sundae sauce. You can use any type of sundae sauce you like or a mixture. I used to drizzle on some caramel, chocolate and strawberry.
This gets topped with crushed peanuts and maraschino cherries and the whole lot gets frozen again. I used to add sliced bananas to the top of each square when I served it, along with another drizzle of whatever topping was their favorite kind.
A sugar fest and once in a blue moon treat for sure, but they loved it!
I took the liberty of adding some pretty cupcake sprinkles to the top of my squares to dress them up a bit. Plain old Krispie bars are not quite as pretty. This isn't necessary however.
They are delicious all on their own, but I thought they would photograph better and be more eye-catching with a bit of colour on top!
Here in Canada I get my cake sprinkles from Sweetpolita. They have a huge variety of sprinkles to choose from. Its very easy to go crazy on their page.
And no, I haven't been paid to say that, or even been given free sprinkles to tell you about them. When I find something I like, I want to share it with my readers, that's all.
I got these as a part of a sampler pack I ordered. They are called Cheep Thrills. I love the bright colours! Very apt for something like a rice krispie treat!
One thing to bear in mind when you are making something like this is to make sure you melt the butter and marshmallows slowly over low heat. If you try to rush the process and increase the temperature, you do risk burning it.
Marshmallows have a high sugar content which burns easily! Been there done that!
You can also melt the mixture in the microwave. It doesn't take long. Bear in mind however you will need a considerably larger container to melt them in as marshmallow really expands.
Also you need to stir it frequently so that it doesn't burn. I stir every 30 seconds or so. How long it takes depends on the strength of your microwave!
If you want to make a full batch of treats, I highly recommend that you check out the Kellogg's site. This is the original recipe from the box and has been pleasing mothers and children for many, many years!
I you are a singleton however, I do hope that you will enjoy this smaller, easy to make, delicious version I have shared with you today. Scrumdiddlyumptious!
Rice Krispie Treats
Yield: makes 8 bars
Cook time: 10 Mininactive time: 1 HourTotal time: 1 H & 10 M
These tasty no-bake treats are quick and easy to make. Designed to get you in and out of the kitchen fast and painlessly. They are a delicious doddle! Suitable for the smaller family.
Ingredients
- 1 TBS salted butter
- 3 cups (75g) crisp rice cereal
- 3 cups (145g) mini marshmallows
- few drops of vanilla
- sprinkles to decorate (optional)
Instructions
- You will need a 9 X 5-inch loaf tin. Line this tin with baking parchment or waxed paper, leaving an overhang to make lifting the bars out of the tin easier.
- Take a large heavy based non-stick saucepan and melt the butter in it over low heat. Add the marshmallows and melt them as well, stirring frequently with a wooden or silicone coated spoon. Make sure they are completely melted and that the butter and marshmallow have completely amalgamated.
- Stir in a few drops of vanilla.
- Stir in the crisp rice cereal, making sure it is well coated with the marshmallow mixture.
- Press this into the prepared loaf tin lightly. Don't compress it too much.
- Sprinkle with cake sprinkles, if using, pressing them lightly to make them adhere.
- Leave for about a hour to set and cool, then cut into squares to serve.
- Store any leftovers in an airtight container.
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This recipe for Lemon Love Notes is one of the finest love notes recipe you can bake. Love notes are a lemon bar, but not just any lemon bar!
With a buttery shortbread crust flavored with lemon and coconut, and their sweet lemon and coconut glaze, they are a favorite with anyone I bake the for.
I had not made them in a very long time, so today I decided to small batch my original recipe with excellent results!
But don't worry I have also entered the full recipe measurements in the notes section of the printable recipe. That way you can either bake a small batch when you only want a few, or a larger batch when you are wanting more!
If you love Lemon, you are simply going to adore these. They are fabulously tasty!
Shortbread crust??? I am there!!! Shortbread crust flavored with lemon??? I am there!!! Add some flaked coconut??? I am there!!! Lemon coconut glaze??? Count me in, roll me in it, poke me, I'm done!!!
In all seriousness, there is nothing about these bars that you won't love. They are incredibly easy to make, bake and even easier to eat!
You begin by making that beautiful shortbread base. I love shortbread cookies, with their crisp and buttery texture. This is much the same, except it is flavored with fresh lemon zest and sweetened flaked coconut.
You can use an unwaxed lemon, but you will still need to really scrub it. Just think of all the pesticides that are used in Orchards, not to mention spider, fly and bug dirt. You want to get all of that off the surface.
A good vegetable brush and some warm soapy water does the trick beautifully. Once you have done that, just dry it off and zest.
I have a fine micro-plane zester/grater. I use it for all of my citrus zesting and also for grating fresh parmesan cheese. It works a charm.
I always just use lightly salted butter for all my baking. Unless the recipe actually specifies unsalted, salted works fine. There is really not much of a difference.
If you use regular salted butter, however, you may want to leave the salt out of the recipe.
Icing sugar is used because of its propensity to melt right into the butter when you are creaming the two together. This helps prevent you from having a gritty finish.
Icing sugar is also known as powdered sugar or confectioner's sugar. Sift it to get any lumps out.
I have never made these with unsweetened coconut, or desiccated coconut, so I cannot answer to how the end result is with either of those. I just use regular sweetened flaked coconut.
It works fine and no, the bars are not too sweet. They are just right. Lemon requires things to be a bit on the sweeter side.
The dough for the shortbread base for these bars is a bit on the tacky side, although not extremely so. For ease in pressing it into the pan, you can lightly flour your fingers, or use an off-set spatula if you have one.
It doesn't have to be totally smooth, but you should try to make it pretty even throughout.
Do NOT over bake these. You want the crust/base to be mostly off-white in color, with just a bit of brown around the edges. This is perfect. If you overbake them, they will be hard.
You don't want that. I find that between 20 to 25 minutes is just perfect in my oven. Start checking them at 20 minutes just to be sure.
Do not skip the glaze. The glaze is essential to the integrity of these bars. In other words, you need it.
Its simply sifted icing sugar, whisked together with some more coconut and then lemon juice until smooth. You want a thickish drizzle. Not thin enough to flick. You want to be able to spread it without it running off the sides of the bars.
If you add it while the base is still warm, it spreads a lot easier. I dollop it in small dollops all over the base and then spread it out with the back of a metal spoon.
I then sprinkle a tiny more coconut overtop before it sets. I think its really pretty this way.
To get perfect shaped bars, cut three times in one direction and four in the other. This will give you 12 bars in an 8-inch square pan.
If you are making the full batch in a 9 by 13-inch pan, you can cut it three times in one direction and 8 times in the other, giving you 24 perfect bars.
I am not sure where I got the original recipe from, or where this recipe gets its name. I had it written down in my big blue binder. Probably copied it out in the 1980's, perhaps from a ladies magazine or a book I got from the library.
I used to be always taking cookbooks out of the library and copying out recipes from them. I never put the source, unless it was a recipe I got from a friend. Then the source was always carefully noted.
I never dreamt that one day I would be sharing these treasures with the world, or I might have been more careful. In any case, you are sure to fall in love with these beautiful lemon bars.
Buttery and crisp, with a beautiful texture and lush lemon flavors these will go down a real treat. Beautiful with a hot cuppa during your morning break, and, when we get back to socializing, these are the perfect addition to any tea party or ladies' luncheon!
Lemon Love Notes
Yield: 12 bars
Prep time: 10 MinCook time: 25 MinTotal time: 35 Min
This is a small batch of a full recipe for the most lovely lemon bars with a lemon and coconut shortbread base and a lush lemon coconut drizzle. Delicious! (See note for measurements to make full batch of 24 bars)
Ingredients
For the base:
- 7/8 cup (123g) all purpose, plain flour
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1/2 cup (120g) butter, softened
- 1/2 cup (65g) icing sugar, sifted
- 1 large free range egg yolk
- 1/2 cup (50g) flaked sweetened coconut
- the finely grated zest of one unwaxed lemon
For the icing:
- 1 cup (130g) icing sugar, sifted
- the fresh juice of 1/2 lemon
- 2 TBS flaked sweetened coconut, plus a bit more to sprinkle
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350*F/180*C/gas mark 4. Butter an 8 inch square baking tin and line with baking paper. Set aside.
- Cream together the butter and icing sugar until light. Beat in the egg yolk. Stir in the salt, coconut, and lemon zest. Add the flour gradually until well combined. Using lightly floured hands, press this mixture evenly in the prepared baking tin.
- Bake on the center rack of the oven for 20 to 25 minutes until set and just turning brown at the edges. Take care not to over bake.
- Remove from the oven and let cool slightly on a wire rack.
- Whisk together the icing sugar and coconut for the glaze. Whisk in the lemon juice until smooth. You should have a drizzle icing. Drizzle over the base to completely cover and then smooth it out with an off-set spatula. Sprinkle with a bit of coconut to finish.
- Leave to cool completely. Cut into 12 bars to serve.
Notes:
To make a full batch: You will need a 9 X 13-inch pan.
1 3/4 cup (245g) all purpose plain flour
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup (240g) butter
1 cup (130g) icing sugar
1 large free range egg
1 cup (100g) sweetened flaked coconut
1 TBS finely grated lemon zest
For the glaze:
2 cups (260g) sifted icing sugar
1/4 cup (60ml) fresh lemon juice
4 TBS flaked sweetened coconut, plus more to finish
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